Dad and the Kid 2010

[...EZ...]

At least your hair is lookin good :] Might I add the glasses make up for that grease ball you have!

[kglissmeyer]

Well, the East Idaho Fly Tying Expo is history. Another great event, and one I'm proud to be a part of. Following my tying session on Friday the Kid and I and buddy EZ (Ryan) made it out to the river. We traveled north to Chester Dam on the lower Henry's Fork. The water was cold and clear, sky was overcast, and bugs were hatching everywhere. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the BWO's were just finishing and there weren't hardly any fish on top. I was a bit disappointed, but we got a late start so we missed it.
We began nymphing and Michael and Ryan were into fish right away, but I couldn't buy a hit...

Both Mike and Ryan hooked and landed some beastly suckers, with Mike's at 20-inches and Ryan's at 23-inches. What a fight! When Ryan landed his we discovered he only had one eye.

We moved downstream and I finally got into some fish and ended the day with around 12 Trout, all Bows, and all under 14-inches. It was fun. I caught them all on a size #14 Pheasant-tail nymph.

The other two caught even more trout than that with several in the 18 and 19-inch range, caught on a variety of different flies with the PT nymph being the most popular. Mike even caught a couple on a streamer.

Fun outing, fun fish and good company, what more can one ask for?

Here are some pics:

I ran into some old friends at the expo.
Myself and Bob Jacklin:


Craig Matthews:


Fish On! Ryan with a good one just below the dam:


This is what that 'good one' looked like - a big ole sucker:


Sucker in the net...


And a one-eyed sucker to boot:


This would probably make a great magazine cover - on Sucker's Are Us...


Another 'smooth' release, if there is such a thing for a sucker:


The Kid's big sucker:


Gnarly fin:


More to come...

[kglissmeyer]

Part II:

Finally some trout:


Nice release:


In The Net - a nice Henry's Fork Brown:


Fish on, Ryan fighting a good one:


Where we fish - Chester Dam, lower Henry's Fork:


The Kid taking a break:


The olive's were there, but the fish weren't up:


Tools of the trade:


Tools of the trade:


Well, that's it for this week. It was great fun to get out again. It was also a memorable time at the expo where we were able to meet new friends, greet old friends and renew older friendships. The fly fishing and tying community is sure made up of a lot of fun characters.

The Big Horn trip is finally on! Leaving in the morning at 6 bells for the drive to Montana and four days of bliss...can't wait. I wondered if it would ever come, and now it's here. I'm excited to post a report upon my return. Hope everyone has a great week.

Tight Lines,

Kelly.

[Lew]

Shack nasties for four months waiting for the Expo, and when it finally gets here, I'm sick! Glad I got to see you for a minute or two guys, but I had to fold my tent and go home. What a bummer. Good Luck on the Big Horn Kelly.

[Betty Hiner]

<Caught a big ole sucker fish once ... the memory still haunts me! It was disgusting! Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, got goose bumps all over me, and I could NOT un hook it! There was NO WAY I was touching that thing! Eeeewwwww! Even now thinking about it gives me the chills!! Gross!!!>

[kglissmeyer]

Well, it finally happened, and it was not a disappointment. We left Idaho Falls last Tuesday at around 6 a.m. in Hyde Boat's truck and trailer rig as we were dropping off 5 new boats for customers at our destination. The traveling crew were myself, and fishing buddies Bob Reece and LaMoyne Hyde of Hyde Driftboats. We were planning on meeting a mutual friend and Orvis guide, Jim Phillips, from Colorado, when we arrived. We traveled through Yellowstone country, up through the Gallatin canyon to Bozeman and then east across the state of Montana along I-90 to Hardin, MT and then south to the Big Horn.

We arrived around 4:00 p.m. and unloaded the boats at Cottonwood Camp. These boats were customs for Cottonwood Camp with their logo on them and would be used as rentals by that operation. We then loaded up their old boats for transport back to Hyde's shop in Idaho Falls, ID for refurbishing. Just a short hop down the same dirt track that took us to Cottonwood Camp and we arrived at Bighorn River Country Lodge, owned and operated by Karl and Trudy Burns, and dog Missy.

We got situated, slipped into our waders and headed for the river just a mile or so from where we were staying. We waded into the river at the three-mile takeout/launch to numerous fish rising and a gaggle of anglers just about everywhere. I headed upriver with our host, Karl, to see if we could find any rising fish. After about a half-mile hike we finally spooted some rising fish in a spot where there were no other anglers. I set up with a Parasol Emerger in a BWO emerger pattern trailed by a small Griffith's Gnat. Karl positioned me below the pod of risers and I promptly put all rising fish down with my first 'splatter' cast. Boy were my dry fly skills rusty. I waited patiently for more fish to begin rising, which they finally did. I moved into position, this time casting up and across rather than straight up-river. After numerous casts to rising fish I finally got a solid take and set the hook on my first Bog Horn Brown trout. It was a beautiful fish, albeit a smallish one compared to the ones I'd seen in pics from the Big Horn. But I was not disappointed and snapped a few quick pictures. By the time all of the picture taking and cleaning off of flies and re-dressing them with floatant, the wind had picked up and the rising fish faded into the creeping sunset. We headed back to the car and called it a night.

After a first-class meal by our host Trudy, we spent an hour talking fishing and making plans for the next morning - our first full day on the river. Then it was bedtime and restless sleep anticipating the morning to come. The rooms at the lodge are incredible and spacious and well stocked with a year's supply of flyfishing magazines for when you are too excited to sleep...

7 bells and we were up and showering and dressing for the day's events. Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh, I can hardly wait. We had a wonderful hot breakfast, loaded up the gear and boats and headed for Ft. Smith to arrainge for shuttles, pick up a few snacks, and then on to the Yellowtail Dam boat launch where we promptly dropped the two boats in the water, parked the vehicles, rigged up, tied on flies and began the float. Our destination was the 13-mile takeout, and we would spend the entire day on the water just fishing our guts out.

I was assigned to the boat (of course we were floating in Hyde driftboats) with LaMoyne Hyde and host, Karl. I started out with a two-fly nymph-rig under a small indicator. On my rivers in Idaho there is usually a resident stonefly population, with several species being respresented. For those rivers I usually use a weighted Rubberlegs pattern as my weight to get the rig down, folloed by two nymphs of the type and size of bugs found in that water. Come to find out, there are only a few Yellow Sally stoneflies in the Big Horn, so the Rubberlegs nymph was not an option. I tied on an amber scud trailed by a small soft-hackle sow-bug pattern, using a couple of split-shot to get it in the zone. After about the first mile and no takes I started switching out to find the right combo. In the meantime, LaMoyne caught the first fish of the float - a smallish Brown - on a dry fly. I finally hooked and landed a Brown of about the same size in an Improved Shop-vac. We stopped at several riffles that proved fishless, drifted a bit more. Floated over some Rainbow redds where we just watched the action of numerous gargantuan Bows in the throes of spawning. I finally caught a substantial Bow a bit later as I drifted a Zebra Midge through some likely looking riffle water.

We then found ourselves about four miles downriver at a place called the 'snag' hole, where we anchored up and enjoyed a great lunch provided by Trudy. While enjoying lunch we noticed the most incredible sight I've ever seen while fishing. I've seen midges and midge clusters before, but I had never seen anything like we witnessed here. There was literally a 'mat' of midges congregated under the bow of both boats, in the shade. Sometimes it was several feet long and wide and often comprised of midges one on top of the other as thick as an inch or so. I was just dumbfounded to find such a thing on a river while fishing. As we finally recognized the mass midge hatch for what it was, we began watching the water and soon were rewarded by numerous rising trout.

I switched over to a dry-fly rig while LaMoyne and Karl rowed out to position themselves to begin fishing to the risers. I tied on my Parasol Emerger fly as the bug that would help me spot where my trailing fly was. I then tied on a Griffit's Gnat with great anticipation of some tremendous fishing. While LaMoyne and Karl were catching fish regularly, I couldn't buy a hit. My casts were good, I had the distance, the flies were landing quietly, but nothing moved to my flies. Finally Karl asked if I was ready for the 'right' fly and I surrendered to the guide's knowledge of the river. I tied on a CDC pattern called a 'Smoke Jumper'. This was a representation of the hatching BWO's, which I had missed in my zeal of thinking the fish were on the midges I had seen. First cast, 'BAM' fish on. The rest is history as LaMoyne and I had a legendary day of dry-flies and big fish. What an experience. I hooked and lost numerous fish, landed numerous fish and lost three Smoke Jumper flies before finding something in my own box that was similar, but with a poly wing. This fly proved as effective as the Smoke Jumper and I continued to catch fish.

Now, we were only four miles into our 13-mile float and we spent most of the afternoon in the one hole, fishing this one run. You would think that when you had caught as many fish as we had that the risers would soon diminish, not so, when we finally left there were as many fish rising as there were when they started, but we had to book it in order to make it to the take-out before dark.

We had a leasurely drift with some power-rowing downriver as we headed to the takeout. We floated past the legendary 'Drive-in' run of the river - a stretch of river lined by old, rusting cars for about a half-mile. Just past the 'Drive-in' we found some more rising fish and, as LaMoyne was unhooking the fish he had just landed, I cast to a rising pod and was into a good Brown. Now I forgot to share one cool tidbit about the Brown trout in this river, they jump just as much or maybe even more than Rainbow trout anywhere else. I've never seen such a thing in all my years fishing. Anyway, I hooked a good fish and it proceeded to take me under the boat, and, as LaMoyne was still working on his fish, my fish jumped about three feet from him with my line running under the boat! Coooool.

The remainder of the trip brought a few more fish to hand, but nothing like we had just following lunch. We made it to the takeout just as the sun was setting. What a great first day, and what memories we had forged, and memorable fish we had caught.

Another sumptuous dinner and we dispensed with the talk and hit the sack. Again to arise a 7 a.m. for day two. So far we were off to a good start with numerous Bows and Browns to hand.

Part I - more to come...

[kglissmeyer]

Big Horn, Part II:

Thursday dawned crisp and clear, a few wispy clouds in the sky as well as anticipation of another phenominal day on the water. Since our first day was quite fruitless - 3 fish hooked and landed in the first three miles - we decided to launch at the three-mile launch/takeout. LaMoyne 'pressed the flesh' with several Hyde boat owners at the launch site and then we rigged up and headed out. This early it was nymphs, so I started with a Zebra/Sow-bug combination. LaMoyne continued to throw dry flies. We came up dry on our drift fishing as well as several riffles where we parked the boats and got out to wade fish. We then arrived through the back-door of the same hole where we had done so well the previous day. Full of boats and wad-fishermen. It was a full-house to be sure, but fish were rising again. We sat and watched as the floatsam of anglers thrashed the water, but no one seemed to be catching any fish. We floated a bit downstream and found some risers along the bank. Not as many fish, and definitley more particular about what they were eating. We threw many different patterns at them and finally settled on a midge imitation that fooled a few.

Karl then had us pull into the mouth of a side-channel, we grabbed our gear and headed up-river about half-a-mile where I rigged up with a nymph rig of a grey Sow-bug on top, followed by a tan and white soft-hackle Sow-bug. Karl told me where the fish would be holding and he wasn't wrong. I proceded to hook a dozen fish, the smallest being 14-inches and most in the 18 to 20-inch range, and one standout that looked to go well over twenty, but he was an LDR just after he jumped to show us what he was. I only landed around six of the dozen, but what a hoot! We walked back to the boat and ate lunch, all the while watching a rare moment as LaMoyne fished with my nymph rig and caught several good fish as our lunchtime entertainment. Jim, our guide friend from Colorado, also fished through the run and caught several good fish.

We found another good stretch where fish were rising and I was relegated to the rowing seat while LaMoyne and Karl fished to the risers. It was tough fishing, but they each caught a few.

LaMoyne, the master rower, then decided that I needed a rowing lesson, and for the next hour or so I wastreated to one-on-one lessons from the guy who wrote the book on driftboats and driftboat rowing. It was fun, disquieting, and nerve-wracking all at the same time, but I learned a lot and can't wait to get back out there to do it again.

We then floated and fished our way down-river. The fishing wasn't too good, but the float was fun and relaxing. We arrived at the takeout, again as the sun was setting, and then loaded up and headed back to the lodge.

Another tremendous dinner by Trudy, and a magic show by Karl after dinner. Then it was off to bed again. The trip of a lifetime had drawn to a close, and all that was left was to pack up, sleep and then leave early the next morning.

We were on the road at 6 bells and headed back across the state of Montana along I-90. This time we drove past Bozeman and headed further west where we drove down through Twin Bridges, and theough the area where the Big Hole, Ruby and Beaverhead all flow and eventually meet to form the Jefferson River, down to I-15, south through Dillon, MT and then south on I-15 to Idaho Falls, where we finally arrived at around 4:00 p.m. It was a long drive going up, but it seemed much longer going back. Anticipation can really change one's perspective of the drive...

The river itself reminded me of the South Fork of the Snake, one of my home waters. It's flows were about the same, the river bottom was similar with the exception of more spring-creek like weed-beds and structure. But the river was lined by cottonwoods and filled with wildlife and the sounds of nature. Two things I noticed in this country was the presence of more pheasants than I have ever seen anywhere - they were crowing at every turn and present in every field. There were also many, many canadian geese everywhere along the river. Most were nesting and most put up quite a fuss as we passed by. I also saw numerous mating pairs of Wood Ducks.

I picked up some new waders while in Ft. Smith, some new Dan Bailey's with a zipper. Man am I spoiled. I met some new friends and strengthened bonds with old ones. We caught a lot of fish, most on dries, something I haven't done for years, stayed at a first class lodge, ate gourmet meals and floated and fished along one of the most famous rivers in the west. What a trip. I truly consider it a trip of a lifetime and will fondly remember my few days spent in that beautiful country.

I can't wait to go back, as well as experience some of the other seasons on the Big Horn. I hear the Caddis hatches are monumental, and the BWO's last clear thru June. It is truly the stuff that legends are made of...

I would be remiss if I didn't thank LaMoyne Hyde, of Hyde Boats, for the invite, my buddies Bob and Jim, and especially our hosts Karl and Trudy Burns, owners and operators of the Bighorn River Country Lodge. They truly run a first-class operation. If you are ever contemplating a trip to that special place you must look them up and they will not disappoint you - http://www.bhcountrylodge.com/?page=home

Pics will follow on several pages. This will be a long post, as I have a lot of pictures, hope you all don't mind, but I've got to share...

Kelly.

[kglissmeyer]

Here are the pics:

How much 'junk' does a guy need to go on a three-day fishing trip?


On the road - across Island Park:


Buffalo crossing just outside of West yellowstone, MT.:


Hyde Boats rig - a sweeeet ride:


LaMoyne Hyde on the river - first evening:


Host/Guide Karl Burns spotting risers from the high ground:


My first Big Horn trout, a nice Brown on a dry fly:


Jim crossing the river on our first evening out at the end of the day:


Day two - making ready for the launch at Yellowtail Dam:


The man, the legend - LaMoyne Hyde. Almost seems bigger than life, proud to call him friend:


More to come...

Kelly.

[kglissmeyer]

Big Horn pics, Part II:

Orvis Guide, Jim Phillips on the left and good friend, Bob Reece on the right:


Fish on! LaMoyne hooks the first fish of the day:


Small but feisty:


Not to be outdone by LaMoyne, I reciprocate with a good Bow:


The guy who wrote the book on driftboat rowing:


Lunch on the river:


I did mention the midges, didn't I?:


LaMoyne firing a shot to a far riser:


Once again, not to be outdone by the master caster, I respond with one of many (LaMoyne out fished me two-to-one, but I still caught a boatload of good fish:


Jim with a nice one:


Still more to come...

Kelly.

[MontanaMoose]

How many 'trips of a lifetime' can one lucky guy enjoy Kelly? Man, it sure is good knowing you're getting out there and doin' it. Then there's the two 'never seen anything like its' in one day....wow, i'm on the edge of my chair watching for Part II !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose